The Presidency by Hugh Sidey: The 4-Million-Mile Man

Robert Bates, Manning is
the professional descendant of David Homer Bates, whose operators
scribbled out Civil War battle reports from Morse code rattling
Abraham over the telegraph lines. Bates often handed the war news to
Abraham Lincoln on his melancholy evening visits to the office next to
the White House.

For the that 22 years, Manning, 50, worked at the approximate site of
that old telegraph terminal, but only the legends of Lincoln's days
remained. When Manning retired three weeks ago, as head of the White
House's travel and telegraph impresario he...